Irish Sam Bennett wins classic Eschborn

Nils Politt beamed like a winner, then he heard his triumphant teammate Sam Bennett in the finish area. The Irish top sprinter sparkled the German cycling party at the classic Eschborn-Frankfurt, but had the German racing team cheer Bora-Hansgrohe with its success on Sunday.

• course does not taste good
• tests not crowned out of success
• for the first time in May
• Brennauer wishes women race

course does not taste good

The best German was Phil Bauhaus, who finished fourth in the mass sprint at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt am Main. John Degenkolb had to be clearly beaten. "I have nothing to reproach myself. I did my best. The course of the race was not that he played extremely in the cards," said "Dege". "I still really enjoyed it, it was a nice May 1st."

The last year's second and local hero found that too many drivers made it to the last round. "In the end I had no chance," said the 33 -year -old Gegenkolb honestly after the 183.9 hard kilometers. Instead, the stage belonged to the top sprinter Bennett, Fernando Gaviria from Colombia and Alexander Kristoff from Norway. "I had really good legs. Thanks to the team that has supported me in the past few months. It is fantastic to win this victory for a German team," said Bennett.

tests not crowned out of success

It was finally the first success this season for the two-time Tour-de France stage winner. "I believe that a whole sack full of stones falls from his heart," said ex-sprinter Marcel Kittel about Bennett, whom his team boss Ralph Denk had previously predicted as a favorite and winner despite the weak spring.

"There will traditionally be a cat-and-mouse game between sprinters and mountain drivers who are looking for their luck in flight in the Taunus," Denk had also predicted. So it went in previous years, but the sprinter and their teams had always prevailed for years. The well -known scenario also repeated itself in 2022 - on the demanding but not too hard course. Also this time there were brave and brave outlier groups, whose attacks were not successful.

for the first time in May

The traditional race took place for the first time in three years on May 1st. In 2020, Corona pandemic ensured a cancellation and a virtual replacement event. In 2021 there was a corona-related shift in autumn, at that time the race was held as a World Cup general rehearsal. Sprinter Pascal Ackermann, 2019 the last German winner so far, was missing this time because of a fracture on the coccyx. Other top German top professionals were not there because they are already preparing for the Giro d'Italia with start on May 6th in Budapest.

In terms of mood, it went as before. Tens of thousands of fans lined the streets in the Taunus, on the climbs like on the Feldberg and above all across the metropolis on the Main, which is already used to the cycling spectacle on May 1st. This time, fans from Eritrea, the Ghent-Wevelgem Sensation winners Biniam Girmay, celebrated themselves with chants, flags and drums-and this time celebrated loudly-before it started in Eschborn at noon.

Brennauer wishes women race

It is not foreseeable whether it will stay with the current classic program in Frankfurt in the future. Rad-Olympic champion Lisa Brennauer had expressed her wish for a race for women during the transfer at Hessischer Rundfunk. "That would of course be amazing. In the past there was a women's race. Perhaps it is only a matter of time. said Brennauer.